The Corrupt Politics of Outrage
Cohabitation is Cowardice and a Dereliction of Duty
Seychelles politics is currently at a complete impasse. Fake news has overwhelmed rational debate. Our national politics is divided between two parties neither of which are fulfilling its duty to the people. Parti Lepep has two separate electoral mandates. The first is to govern based on their victory in the Presidential elections. The second is to provide opposition in the Assembly based on their defeat in the Assembly elections. They are failing in both. They have allowed the National Assembly to emasculate their will to govern and have failed abysmally to provide any credible opposition in the Assembly. The first duty of an Opposition is opposition. Cohabitation is simply cowardice, a dereliction of duty. Parti Lepep has abdicated its duty to provide effective government. Appeasement does not work and can never deliver “Peace in our Time”.
The second party was elected by a narrow majority to the legislature and seems to believe that expressing outrage is its primary responsibility. Their style of politics is to create the false news and alternative facts necessary to peddle outrage to a gullible electorate. It is the same style of politics that got Trump elected in the US and Brexit voted in by England. In all three cases it is a politics with a strong undercurrent of racism against foreigners and a false narrative that the circumstances of the people are the result of exploitation by foreign interests. This politics of hatred and incitement is relentlessly peddled in newspapers, social media and on TV and radio to maintain the sense of outrage needed to distract the people from the ultimate truth - that the politics of outrage has nothing to offer other than more outrage, fake news and lies while society and the economy spiral out of control. The private interests that sponsored the new politics thrive however.
The people of Seychelles have a right to expect certain things of their politicians. One of these rights is the right to an active Opposition in the Assembly. The SNP abdicated this duty to the people in the previous governing cycle. Now Parti Lepep is abdicating its duty under the guise of “cohabitation”. The current failure of our national politics arises from the tendency, encouraged by LDS social media, to wallow in negative emotions often with little attention to underlying facts, never mind positive news.
It manufactures a barrage of negativity that discards robust debate in favour of corrosive cynicism. The majority in the Assembly needs to be challenged and the lies and fake news need to be confronted. Failure to provide real opposition is allowing the corruption of the independence of the Executive, the Judiciary and of the people’s Institutions. If Parti Lepep cannot do this, some other political party needs to emerge to pick up the gauntlet. This is not a matter of optics, choreography or spin. It is vital to the national interest, the truth and most of all, to the future welfare of the people of Seychelles.
Independent
Seychelles politics is currently at a complete impasse. Fake news has overwhelmed rational debate. Our national politics is divided between two parties neither of which are fulfilling its duty to the people. Parti Lepep has two separate electoral mandates. The first is to govern based on their victory in the Presidential elections. The second is to provide opposition in the Assembly based on their defeat in the Assembly elections. They are failing in both. They have allowed the National Assembly to emasculate their will to govern and have failed abysmally to provide any credible opposition in the Assembly. The first duty of an Opposition is opposition. Cohabitation is simply cowardice, a dereliction of duty. Parti Lepep has abdicated its duty to provide effective government. Appeasement does not work and can never deliver “Peace in our Time”.
The second party was elected by a narrow majority to the legislature and seems to believe that expressing outrage is its primary responsibility. Their style of politics is to create the false news and alternative facts necessary to peddle outrage to a gullible electorate. It is the same style of politics that got Trump elected in the US and Brexit voted in by England. In all three cases it is a politics with a strong undercurrent of racism against foreigners and a false narrative that the circumstances of the people are the result of exploitation by foreign interests. This politics of hatred and incitement is relentlessly peddled in newspapers, social media and on TV and radio to maintain the sense of outrage needed to distract the people from the ultimate truth - that the politics of outrage has nothing to offer other than more outrage, fake news and lies while society and the economy spiral out of control. The private interests that sponsored the new politics thrive however.
The people of Seychelles have a right to expect certain things of their politicians. One of these rights is the right to an active Opposition in the Assembly. The SNP abdicated this duty to the people in the previous governing cycle. Now Parti Lepep is abdicating its duty under the guise of “cohabitation”. The current failure of our national politics arises from the tendency, encouraged by LDS social media, to wallow in negative emotions often with little attention to underlying facts, never mind positive news.
It manufactures a barrage of negativity that discards robust debate in favour of corrosive cynicism. The majority in the Assembly needs to be challenged and the lies and fake news need to be confronted. Failure to provide real opposition is allowing the corruption of the independence of the Executive, the Judiciary and of the people’s Institutions. If Parti Lepep cannot do this, some other political party needs to emerge to pick up the gauntlet. This is not a matter of optics, choreography or spin. It is vital to the national interest, the truth and most of all, to the future welfare of the people of Seychelles.
Independent
Comments
Post a Comment